GeoFacts No. 25 OHIO DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES • DIVISION OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY HIGH-CALCIUM LIMESTONES IN OHIO Limestone and dolomite have so many applications that they of the Maxville is a massive blue-gray limestone that weathers have been described as the “duct tape” of geologically derived to light brown and is approximately 25 feet thick. A 3-foot-thick materials. Deposits of high-calcium limestones in Ohio have been middle “nodular” zone consists of interbedded limestone and used since the mid-1800s to produce cement and lime, which shale that is fossiliferous. The approximately 12-foot-thick up- continue to be essential items for a growing industrial economy. per zone is thin- to medium-bedded, dense, blue-gray limestone. Cement has various uses in the construction industry. Lime, both The Maxville has a disconformable contact with the overlying magnesium-rich and high-calcium varieties, has a multitude of Pennsylvanian-age sediments. The upper Maxville is often re- uses in the chemical, glass, paper, and steel industries, as well moved by erosion, which creates challenges with stratigraphic as in agriculture and water treatment. correlation. A high-calcium limestone is a carbonate rock containing mostly The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, Columbia Chemical calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and less than 5% of magnesium car- Division, operated a Portland cement plant at East Fultonham, bonate (MgCO3); however, the majority of available carbonate Muskingum County beginning in the 1920s. Chemical analyses resources in Ohio are dolomitic limestone, which contains 20% or of Maxville Limestone samples from East Fultonham indicate an more of MgCO3. In addition, many of the easily accessible, highly average of 94% CaCO3 and 1.4% MgCO3. The East Fultonham calcareous limestone deposits in Ohio have either been depleted underground mine was abandoned in 1984 and the entire opera- or are currently being mined. It is important to understand the tion closed in 1987. Maxville Limestone greater than 50 feet thick areal extent and chemical composition of potential high-calcium occurs in the subsurface over a wide area of southeastern Ohio. limestone resources remaining in Ohio, so that informed decisions Depth to the top of the Maxville varies from 110 feet in Morgan can be made about their future development. County to greater than 1,900 feet in Monroe County. Chemical analyses from the subsurface Maxville in southern GEOLOGY OF HIGH CALCIUM LIMESTONES IN OHIO Ohio vary from 81%–98% CaCO3 and 0.1%–5.6% MgCO3. The Alpha Portland Cement Company mined the Maxville north of PUTNAM HILL LIMESTONE Ironton, Lawrence County from 1913 until it closed in 1970. Depth to the top of the Maxville Limestone is approximately 475 The Putnam Hill Limestone is part of the lower portion of feet. The Maxville in the Alpha mine is 97 feet thick, of which 43 the Pennsylvanian-age Allegheny Group. The Putnam Hill is feet was mined. The Maxville at Alpha is gray to brown, regular- located in portions of Muskingum, Perry, Licking, Coshocton, bedded, dense, sparsely fossiliferous limestone. Holmes, Wayne, Tuscarawas, and Stark Counties. The Putnam Hill is a medium-gray, massive, fi nely crystalline limestone that COLUMBUS LIMESTONE contains abundant fossils and has zones of chert and fl int scat- tered throughout it. The Putnam Hill averages 3 feet thick but The Devonian-age Columbus Limestone has a wide distribu- can range up to 10 feet thick. tion in northern and central Ohio and a chemical composition The Diamond Portland Cement Company quarried 10 feet that approaches or surpasses 90% CaCO3 in many places. The of high-calcium Putnam Hill Limestone for a cement plant at typical Columbus exposure consists of a lower portion of brown, Middlebranch, Stark County that operated from 1892 to 1977. massive, dolomitic limestone that contains chert and rare fossils. The Putnam Hill Limestone at Middlebranch has a carbonate The average thickness of the lower portion of Columbus Limestone content of 94.7% CaCO3 and 1.5% MgCO3. is 40 feet. The upper 65 feet of Columbus Limestone consists of gray, crystalline, highly fossiliferous limestone. VANPORT LIMESTONE Active Columbus Limestone quarries produce stone used primarily as aggregate for the construction industry, but the The Pennsylvanian-age Vanport Limestone is located in por- Columbus has been utilized for more specialized purposes in tions of southern Ohio (Vinton, Jackson, Lawrence, and Scioto the past. For example, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Counties) and northeastern Ohio (Tuscarawas, Stark, and Ma- began operating an underground Columbus Limestone mine in honing Counties). The Vanport Limestone is up to 20 feet thick Barberton, Summit County during 1942, which operated until in Mahoning County, where it is brown, dense, and fossiliferous. 1976. The upper 51 feet of the Columbus Limestone had been The ESSROC Cement Corporation quarried the Vanport Lime- identifi ed as suitable for the manufacture of heavy chemicals, stone in southeastern Mahoning County during 2006 to supply a so two 16 x 7-foot shafts were sunk to a depth of 2,300 feet. The Portland Cement plant in nearby Bessemer, Pennsylvania. The coarse stone (greater than 7/8 of an inch in diameter) was used average chemical composition from 3 samples was 94% CaCO3 by the chemical plant and the smaller stone (less than 7/8 of an and 1.3% MgCO3. inch in diameter) was used to manufacture Portland cement. The Vanport Limestone was mined at several locations in Lawrence County. In the Hanging Rock Region, it was used as a DUNDEE LIMESTONE fl ux in iron furnaces in the late 1800s; later, it was used to sup- port a thriving cement industry. The Superior Portland Cement The Devonian-age Dundee Limestone is exposed in several Company mined the Vanport underground at Pedro, Elizabeth quarries in northwestern Ohio and is present in the subsurface Township from the turn of the century until 1954. The Vanport at depths of less than 900 feet. The lower Dundee is light gray Limestone is 7 feet, 10 inches thick at Pedro. It was used to to light brown, sucrosic, sandy dolomite and limestone rock with produce cement that was used extensively in the construction abundant chert. The upper Dundee is a medium- to coarse-grained of locks and dams in the Ohio River. fossiliferous limestone. The basal portion of the upper Dundee is often sublithographic to lithographic and pelletal in part. MAXVILLE LIMESTONE Thickness of the lithographic limestone facies ranges from less than 20 feet to greater than 60 feet. The insoluble magnesium The Maxville Limestone is Upper Mississippian in age. The oxide content of the Dundee averages less than 0.5% in chemi- Maxville outcrops in areas of Perry, Muskingum, Hocking, Vinton, cal analyses. Jackson, and Scioto Counties. The Maxville is up to 40 feet thick The Lafarge Corporation, Great Lakes Region, operates a along Jonathan Creek in Muskingum County. The lower zone Portland cement plant in Paulding County. In 2006, Lafarge continued ➮ produced more than 800,000 tons of Dundee Limestone from the FURTHER READING Paulding quarry to manufacture Portland cement. Lafarge also produced more than 140,000 tons of the overlying Silica Shale Bleininger, A.V., 1904, The manufacture of hydraulic cements: Ohio to be used in the cement manufacturing process. Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 3, 391 p., 81 fi gs. Lamborn, R.E., 1945, Recent information on the Maxville limestone: BRASSFIELD LIMESTONE Ohio Division of Geological Survey Information Circular 3, 18 p., 1 fi g. Lamborn, R.E., 1951, Limestones of Eastern Ohio: Ohio Division of The lithology of the Silurian-age Brassfi eld Formation is het- Geological Survey Bulletin 49, 377 p. erogeneous, consisting of limestone, dolomite, and shale. The Stith, D.A., 1972, High-calcium limestone facies of the Devonian Dundee Brassfi eld outcrops in portions of eight counties in southwestern Limestone, northwestern Ohio: Ohio Division of Geological Survey Ohio. Its total thickness in southwestern Ohio is 11–50 feet. In Report of Investigations 86, 14 p., 7 tbls., 4 fi gs. Greene, Montgomery, Miami, and Preble Counties, the lower por- Stith, D.A., 1979, Chemical composition, stratigraphy, and depositional tion of the Brassfi eld is composed of light-gray to white limestone environments of the Black River Group (Middle Ordovician), southwest- with green clay or shale partings and interbedded dolomite. The ern Ohio: Ohio Division of Geological Survey Report of Investigations upper portion is a pink to gray, medium- to coarse-grained, fos- 113, 36 p., 4 tbls., 8 fi gs., 3 pls. siliferous limestone. From central Highland County to the Ohio Stith, D.A. and Stieglitz, R.D., 1979, An evaluation of “Newberry” analy- River, the Brassfi eld member of the Drowning Creek Formation sis data of the Brassfi eld Formation (Silurian), southwestern Ohio: is relatively less bioclastic and contains abundant chert. Ohio Division of Geological Survey Report of Investigations 108, 11 Chemical analyses of more than 1,000 samples of the Brassfi eld p., 1 tbl., 7 fi gs. in Ohio reveal several locations with limestone intervals that are Stith, D.A., Berg, T.M., Ault, C.H., Dever, G.R., Jr., Masters, J.M., greater than 10 feet thick and contain more than 95% CaCO3. Berkheiser, S.W., Jr., Simard, C.M., and Hester, N.M., 1997, Limestone Many areas containing the Brassfi eld in southern Preble County, and dolomite availability in the Ohio River Valley for sulfur sorbent western Montgomery County, southwestern Miami County, and use, with observations on obtaining reliable chemical analyses: Ohio western Greene County contain less than 3% MgCO3. CEMEX Division of Geological Survey Information Circular 59, 16 p., 3 tbls., operates a Portland cement plant southeast of Fairborn in Greene 12 fi gs. County. In 2006, CEMEX produced approximately 1 million tons Stout, Wilber, 1941, Dolomites and limestones of western Ohio: Ohio of Brassfi eld Limestone from quarries in Greene and Montgomery Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 42, 468 p., 2 tbls., 1 map.